Brown-Bag It to Half a Million
There's an interesting article followed by a healthy discussion on the benefits of brown-bagging your lunches every day. Most of the discussion languishes on the mundane mathematical details of the exact dollar amount of savings but keep in mind it's a site dedicated to 'Finding the "Secret" of Wealth'.

As someone who looks forward to lunch as the most satisfying part of his day I'd have to say one should also factor in the pleasure principle - what's good for the spirit is also good for the mind and body. If going out to lunch every day really does give me that much pleasure it may also have a positive impact on my healthcare costs (both physical and mental). Perhaps that analysis is a bit of a stretch, but take into the consideration the snippet from lifehack that quotes from the article: "Say I put that $1,000 a year into savings and CDs that paid an average of 5% interest. That $40,000 has now turned into $120,799! Wow! Not bad for packing a sandwich four times a week."

Well.. no savings account I've ever been offered averages 5% return on investment - certainly not with a $5 daily deposit and definitely not without an initial investment of say $10k. Moreover, while the discussion does factor in the time required to make these lunches (time is money after all) it is quickly put to rest by those who note that the time spent making these lunches would not otherwise be used to make money. In my case however this would not be true. Mostly every moment of free time I have these days is spent working. The time I save not having to shop for appropriately delectable bag-lunch items and preparing my lunch is time I spend doing such things as updating this website (non-paying gig mind you but it's all part of a bigger plan). Furthermore, not having to haul my ass to the bank at a cost of $2.65/gallon of gas to deposit my $5 in savings pretty much offsets the entire argument.

Brown-Bag It to Half a Million